Inari
by Micha F. Lindemans
The Japanese god of food or goddess of rice. Inari is one of the most mysterious deities of Japan. He is both male and female. Each year he/she descends from a mountain to the rice fields. The fox is Inari's messenger and it is believed that he/she can assume a fox's shape. The deity may also assume the shape of a spider in order to teach wicked men a lesson. Inari is portrayed with a beard and carrying two bundles of rice.
An Inari-shrine can be found in many Japanese towns and in many households he/she is venerated as a symbol of prosperity and friendship. These shrines are guarded by statues of foxes, divine messengers. Inari's central temple is Fushimi-Inara in south-east Kyoto city, built around 700 CE.
Inara the rice-goddess is celebrated in a festival held during the first days of spring when cultivation begins. She may be identified with the Indian Lakshmi and the Javanese Dewi Sri. Inari is also sometimes identified with Uga-no-Mitama, the goddess of agriculture.
Aburage, fried bean-curd, is an offering relished by Inari. Rice wrapped in aburage is called Inari-sushi or o-Inari-san.
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Inari has been depicted both as male and as female. The most popular representations of Inari, according to scholar Karen Ann Smyers, are an old man carrying rice, a young female food goddess, and an androgynous bodhisattva.[1] No one view is correct; the preferred gender of depiction varies according to regional traditions and individual beliefs.[1] Because of this close association with kitsune, Inari is sometimes portrayed as a fox; however, although this belief is widespread, both Shinto and Buddhist priests discourage it.[1] Inari also appears in the form of a snake or dragon, and one folktale has Inari appear to a wicked man in the shape of a monstrous spider as a way of teaching him a lesson.
Inari is sometimes identified with other mythological figures. Some scholars suggest that Inari is the figure known in classical Japanese mythology as Ukanomitama or the Kojiki's Ōgetsu-Hime; others suggest Inari is the same figure as Toyouke. Some take Inari to be identical to any grain kami.[2][3]
Inari's female aspect is often identified or conflated with Dakiniten, a Buddhist deity who is a Japanese transformation of the Indian dakini,[4] or with Benzaiten of the Seven Lucky Gods.[5] Dakiniten is portrayed as a female or androgynous boddhisatva riding a flying white fox.[4]
Inari is often venerated as a collective of three deities (Inari sanza); since the Kamakura period, this number has sometimes increased to five kami (Inari goza). However, the identification of these kami has varied over time. According to records of Fushimi Inari, the oldest and perhaps most prominent Inari shrine, these kami have included Izanagi, Izanami, Ninigi, and Wakumusubi, in addition to the food deities previously mentioned. The five kami today identified with Inari at Fushimi Inari are Ukanomitama, Sadahiko, Omiyanome, Tanaka, and Shi. However, at Takekoma Inari, the second-oldest Inari shrine in Japan, the three enshrined deities are Ukanomitama, Ukemochi, and Wakumusubi.[6] According to the Nijūni shaki, the three kami are Ōmiyame no mikoto (water,) Ukanomitama no mikoto (grain,) and Sarutahiko no mikami (land.)
The fox and the wish-fulfilling jewel are prominent symbols of Inari. Other common elements in depictions of Inari, and sometimes of his/her kitsune, include a sickle, a sheaf or sack of rice, and a sword.